"J" and Pinterest

Ah, I see that Blogger has decided to change some things.  So hopefully I can post from the computer I work from.

Pinterest...my new obsession...my new addiction...shall I say more?  I love it!  I love the inspiration I find!  But it's awfully dangerous.  DANGEROUS!  Have I mentioned before that I'm an 'all or nothing' person?  Well, the hardest thing for me about Pinterest is that I want to live in reality.  I don't like pinning things that aren't attainable.  I don't see the point.  Does that take the fun out of it?  Probably.  Yes, I do have a board labeled "Dreamy White Kitchen" where I collect ideas for a kitchen remodel that may happen someday.  Someday.  So I try my best to stay in the realm of reality.  I guess my thought is if I can't have it, why pin it?  Haha!  I know, I'm so boring, right?

So the very first thing I pinned was something attainable.  I just fell in love.  And so my love affair began and one click on an Etsy link and I was smitten.

Peggy from Letter Perfect Designs was amazing to work with!  I had ideas in my mind and she had color combos for me to choose from.  And so after many conversations back and forth on Etsy, I arrived at my decision:

I don't think my photo really does justice, so you will just have to come and see it for yourself (haha!).  For many years I've been in love with the letter "J", and now we all know why.

Jeralyn.

My sweet baby J.

Anyway, I'm loving this new addition to the walls of Jeralyn's room!

Pink Ruffle, Tie-Dye Baby, and Beautiful

Yikes!  It's been almost a month since I last posted.  Thanks to my other computer not wanting to blog regularily, the process takes a lot longer now.  Sorry about that!  I will post 3 pages to make up for it, plus I'm not sure when I will get to this again.

I'm not used to being "behind" on scrapbooking.  (I hear that chuckle)  I do what I can when I can.  I'm many weeks behind on Jeralyn's baby journal pages.  I have the journaling and the pictures, but not completed pages.  Oops!  And 2011 pages are getting lost in the shuffle.  So does creativity.  Although I have been creative in other ways.  I've been working on a lampshade project.  I've been knitting.  I sewed something for Jeralyn today.  So I guess I have been creative.


Love this page!  I absolutely LOVED the pink ruffle shirt on Jeralyn!  Adorable! 

Same thing for the tie-dye! 

And this picture just needed to be on it's own, big and bold!

My mom came for a couple of weeks to help me with Jeralyn since I was on weight lifting restrictions.  It was so great to have her here, but so sad to say goodbye.  I hate goodbyes!

Well, I must get the baby ready for bed. 

Templates

Scrapbooking can very easily go to the wayside these days, so when I do get a chance to scrap (and if I feel creative enough) I want to do something quick. I've been using some of Kaleigh Wiles' templates from Designer Digitals. Her part of the shop/designs are called Studio Double-D. I love her style and I love that she incorporates other designers designs in the templates. These are a couple of pages I created using some of her templates.

It snowed today! It seems like I haven't seen the white stuff sticking to the ground like this in quite awhile. We probably have about 4-5 inches. Just yesterday I noticed the crocuses in our yard, and now the poor things are buried in snow. Hopefully spring will be on it's way soon!

Jeralyn hit the 6 month mark last week! I can't believe it! And she's really changed in the last couple of weeks! Wow!

I think after my 6 weeks of recovery after surgery I will try to run again. I miss it! Actually, I miss exercising! I've done some walking here and there, but nothing crazy since I'm mending and healing.

As far as knitting goes, I'm currently working on my 5th pair of slippers.

Until next time...

Just BE

Just be: this is a good reminder for myself right now. In fact, that reminds of of a quote I found and have been wanting to share. I'll have to post that soon.

So I am at home recovering well. Thank you, Lord! I feel like I am getting stronger each day. The incision is pretty crazy, but it's nice to have the staples out. I won't go into details, but Quent says it looks like a centipede walked across my belly. Ha! It's really nice to be home and with my family!

Jeralyn changes daily it seems. She's hilarious! Her personality is coming out more and more!



I feel so behind with everything right now, but that's to be expected.

I'm excited to get some new yarn my mother-in-law picked up for me from Frankenmuth, Michigan! I am becoming a yarn-snob!

Well, this is all for now. Have a super awesome weekend!

Guess where I've been?

Any guesses?

The hospital.

Appendicitis.

Yeah...after a few days of feeling weird last week and checking my symptoms on WebMD,A I decided it was time to go to the ER and find out. I had surgery the next morning and now after 5 days I get to go home. As you can imagine this has been really hard on me because of my sweet baby at home. I miss her. Two hard things about of all of this is that it's forced me to stop breast feeding and I cannot lift or carry her for 6 weeks. That breaks my heart.

Anyway, I just wanted to share.

The White Stuff

This is a page I created some time in December when I was in the mood to scrap. I love when I get in those moods! I tried to scrap today, but I almost felt like I was forcing myself. Weird, aye? For this page I used my digital kit called Snowscape. It's available here. I love how the colors blend together! It was just great fun (the walk/pictures and scrapping!)!

Baby Slippers/Booties

Have I ever mentioned how much I don't really enjoy knitting socks? Well, it's pretty much the one thing I don't like to knit, which is a bummer because sock yarn looks like SO MUCH FUN! I should give socks another try though. Anyway, so I wanted to make Jeralyn a pair of slippers, but I kept on remembering when I tried over the summer to do so and it wasn't a very good experience. In other words, me + double-pointed needles + sock-like knitting = zero fun. So searching for something simple, I found this pattern. It's pretty popular! I ended up finding someone else's "interpretation" of the pattern, which is what I ended up using. Very helpful! It's great because you can pretty much make any size. You can use any size needle and any yarn. You can see what I used here.

The slippers/booties are super cute! And they stay on!

The Big Yawn

Hello! Are you having a fabulous February so far? Instead of snow, we are getting rain, but I'm ok with that! I am looking forward to spring though. I miss going on walks. And I can't wait to take walks with Jeralyn in the stroller! And possibly push her in the jogger stroller while I run! Before I get too excited I better remind myself that it is still winter.

My little word for the year is CREATE. I'm seeing the challenge in that with a little one. Maybe it's something I just really need to make a priority.

As you can guess, we have been taking lots of pictures of our little girl. I'm going to try to not scrap all of them, but it's going to be hard not to. But maybe not since time is precious these days. The page below has pictures I just had to scrap because when Jeralyn yawns she looks so much like Quent when he yawns. I remember that really standing out to me and so I scrapped about it.



Recently, I had the first 20 weeks of her journal printed through Persnickety Prints and now those pages are in her journal. I did make my own little rendition of a page protector like I was asking about in a previous post. But I think I may need to modify it--it's kind of hilarious! I LOVE looking at those finished, printed pages in her album. I'll take pictures of what it looks like so far--soon!

I'm also finishing up some baby booties/slippers I am making for her. So I guess I have a few posts due soon!

Happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend!

You Make Me Laugh

Well, hello there! No one had any answers to my question? Hmmm... I may have to ask on a scrapbooking forum, or I think I may just make my own page protector. It will be an experiment!

I created this page months ago. I haven't had much time to scrapbook, but I have had time to work on the baby journal. I'm ok with that! I'm also making more of an effort to get some design work done. Yeah!



She turned 5 months a couple of days ago! It really does go by fast! I'm trying to remember what those first few weeks felt like as a new mother. I remember the rush of emotions that would hit me knowing that we had our little promise. I also remember having my freak-out moments. Don't all moms have their moments? Whew! Jeralyn is so much fun! Every single day I thank the Lord for my baby girl! We waited for soooo loooooong! There were so many moments of feeling very discouraged--I don't miss those days! But I never want to forget them either. It's so hard when you long for something (someone) so much, but that dream feels delayed or like it will never come. But God was faithful!

Have a blessed day!

Need help finding something!

I'm trying to find some sort of page protector that I can put things like hospital bracelets and other keepsakes in that will keep them in the pages and not fall out. I've been looking online and I cannot seem to find anything. I know there has to be something like that out there. The closest I came to finding something like that was something Ali Edwards posted about when she was talking about her daughter's baby book, but it looks like that product is unavailable. I'm about to just make my own, but I'd rather just have something already made because time is precious these days.

Please let me know if you know of anything. This would be something that would fit into a 3-ring 12x12 binder. Thank you!

Oh, I was also wondering if the Project Life pages would be something like this? Does stuff fall out of those?

Baby Journal Update

I have been wanting to post some of the baby journal pages for some time now, so I'm happy to be doing that today. I had an early start today. Baby is teething (doc said she should be getting teeth in the next couple of weeks--no joke!), so I've been hearing a lot of crying. Being a mom is the most challenging thing I've ever experienced! WHEW!!!!! But it's all worth it! Even when you want to cry yourself because you just want one more hour of sleep.

For the most part I've been staying current with the journal pages. I do all of my journaling in my email account so I can access it from anywhere. It's been a nice process so far and I've enjoyed it. And it's really the only scrapbooking I have successfully done the last few months.

I'm so glad Quent took those pictures for Week 17 because if he didn't, we would have had no pictures for that week. It was a crazy week!

Well, I'm off to get the baby.

I'll post more soon!

It's been awhile!

I apologize for the pause in posts. Our main computer doesn't allow me to post anything except pictures on my blog. Our "old" computer does let me post though. We were away from home for basically 8 weeks (for 5 weeks of that we did have our main computer). I have missed blogging! Because I do most of my creative work on the main computer and all of the pages are saved to that computer, I have to email the pages to my address and then grab them on the old computer. It's a lengthy process, and a worthwhile one, but one I don't have as much time for anymore. Priorities sure do change when you have a little one! Whew!

We have a family blog that I have been shy about sharing on my blog here (probably because I'm such a private person). Some of you may have the address already, but here it is just in case if you don't. www.qcsmith.blogspot.com That way you can see updated pictures of Jeralyn and see what we have been up to.

From the beginning of November until mid-December we were living in Juneau temporarily for Quent's job. And then we came home for a couple of days, and then left for Michigan for Christmas for almost 3 weeks. It's really good to be home, but I do miss our family/friends!

Yesterday I put together some rough drafts for the weeks I am behind on for Jeralyn's weekly baby book. It won't take me too long to catch up on it. I am enjoying the process of it and I feel like I stay pretty organized and on top of things with it--thus far. As she grows and is more alert and active, I know I won't have as much time to devote to scrapbooking, but I will do my best. I'm also editing photos we took while in Michigan. And I'm going to be sending out our very late Christmas/New Years card. WHEW!

So life has been busy and we are enjoying our little girl! She was like a completely different baby after being in Juneau for 5 weeks. They really do grow so much! So fast!

In the past 3 months I knitted a dress and mittens for Jeralyn. I also knitted some wash cloths for gifts. And...a pair of slippers! I don't have any projects I'm working on currently, except one project I should probably finish. I don't like having unfinished projects hanging over me.

So I should be able to post more often now. Yeah! Thank you for your patience! I hope everyone had a very relaxing and blessed holiday season!

Happy New Year!

P.S. My "little word for 2012" is CREATE. Hmmmm...

Having trouble posting, but here are some pics!

More journal pages

Here are a couple more pages for the baby journal:

LOVE your SMiLE

Another layout for the week!



So far I've been able to scrap here and there. During naps I'm always asking myself, "What should I do for this nap time?" And then I try to prioritize things, like cleaning a bathroom, making dinner, etc. But sometimes I just want to sit and relax, so I find myself scrapping.

It's amazing how many philosophies there are out there are on all aspects of raising children. From sleep to potty training, from bottle feeding vs. breastfeeding to when to start feeding solids. For every subject you can find countless information and different ways of what works. I'm one of those people that doesn't like to be surprised. I'm not always good at flying by the seat of my pants. I'm not spontaneous. I read books while I was pregnant about baby stuff. It was a good and bad thing. It's good to be informed, but babies don't come with a manual. Jeralyn didn't read the books I read. So guess what I've been doing?--learning to be flexible--learning to 'fly by the seat of my pants'. It's not always easy for me. But I am learning. I'm adjusting. We find our groove, we lose the groove, we find another groove, we lose that groove, and then we make more adjustments. I can see that smile on some of your faces. Yeah...

I'm really enjoying Jeralyn's smiles! The interaction is just so sweet!

J

Have you ever had one of those days where you are really confused about what day it is? I felt like that all day today since Quent had today off of work due to Columbus Day. Anyway...last week I created this page. I'm finding time here and there to be creative, so I'm thankful for that. I'm having so much fun scrapbooking Jeralyn! And of course creating those memories!



I have Bubble Talk for 50% off at MScraps for Tuesday!

Goodnight!

Baby Weekly Journal

Hello! How are you this fine Saturday? It's raining here...gasp...I know, big surprise for Southeast Alaska in October. *wink* But that's ok! I kind of like knowing it's that time of year to get cozy indoors. Plus it's a good excuse to scrapbook. *smile*

So onto the subject of baby books and documentation...

I bought a bright pink 12x12 We R Memory Keepers ring binder scrapbook album for Jeralyn months ago. So far it's filled with stuff like our hospital bracelets, some cards she received with gifts, and other such things. For a few weeks I've been thinking about how I want to document her first year. I decided to do a weekly documentation. From her first week I've kept a journal through my Hotmail account. Babies grow so much and change so much in the first year. I wanted to do more than just document monthly. Maybe when Baby Smith #2 comes along (in at least a couple of years--don't worry--I'm not thinking about that yet. Whew!) I will only have time to document monthly, but weekly is what will work best for our first. (On a side note, have you ever read The Birth Order book by Kevin Leman? There's some interesting stuff in there! He teases middle children about not having many photos in the family photo album. I think it's quite true!)

In the beginning of this week I started to play around with some ideas of what I would want the weekly pages to look like. Knowing myself, it has to be something I won't get bored with too quickly since it's going to be a year of journaling/documenting. I know that I need to leave room for creativity. One of my favorite scrapbookers is Kayleigh Wiles. I am drawn to her collage style and I never seem to grow tired of it, so that's what I'm aiming for.



So each week I'm planning on having the photo frame collages. And then I like to draw the color out of the photos using a bit of color from paper and elements. Some weeks I will use more circles, some weeks more squares. It will just depend. Like I said, I want to leave plenty of room for creativity and flexibility for myself. I'm picking my favorite pictures from the week. Some weeks there will be more pictures than others. Maybe for some weeks it will just be one picture. It will just depend.

I'm not really into the traditional baby books. I think they are fantastic, don't get me wrong, but right now, for me, I wanted something more, something different. I really hope Jeralyn will appreciate this some day. I know I would. I struggled with what I should do for her baby book because I didn't know how I should go about it. I really like what I have come up with--I just hope I stick to it. I think the format I am using will keep me motivated though, so that will be good!

For our regular scrapbook album, I will scrap the pictures that mean the most to me, just like I normally would. I struggled with that too. I wondered if I should print 2 pages, one for her book, and one for ours. But again, I think what I have come up with will take care of that.

I will update this project more in the future.

Have a blessed weekend!

Don't Waste It

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. --Steve Jobs

I was watching The View yesterday morning when they played a clip of Steve Jobs giving a speech, and this is what he said in the clip. When he said, "don't waste it living someone else's life" I started to get choked up. It's exactly what my heart has been feeling in these last few years. For so long I felt like it wasn't safe to be me, and so I wasted some time trying to cover up the real me. But now I feel free! Free to be me! I still am challenged by some things. I still feel nervous at times. I'm still a pretty private person and won't share everything, but that's just who I am. But I'm glad I know that I can be the best person that I am--that God has created me to be!

The Belly Story

My Girl

Yesterday after dinner I asked Quent if I could scrapbook a little before Jeralyn woke up from her nap. So I left the dirty dishes and kitchen clean up for him. He's awesome like that! And then I scrapped! It was so much fun, but I felt myself feeling like I had to hurry. I had to scurry around my digital stash to find what I was looking for, but I was able to complete the page! Yeah!



I have to say that there have been some frustrations with being a mother. Whew! It's not been a smooth sail every day. I'm learning. I'm making adjustments. What I am figuring out about myself is that I'm not very good at being flexible or just 'going with the flow'. I get these ideas stuck in my head about how I think things should be working and then I have a really hard time letting go of those expectations. Maybe it's the perfectionist side of me? I think I can be so hard on myself at times. Well, I don't just think that, I know that. I've had different moms tell me that this stage is one of the hardest, that the first month and a half is challenging. I have no other stages to compare it to, but I can say that I've definitely had some challenges along the way so far. Please don't get me wrong, I LOVE my little girl!! She's so precious to me!

I'm learning. I'm growing. I'm so thankful!